Your welcome!  Good idea to email them that we don't want a declaration of safety made just to make us feel warm and fuzzy about those 'background levels.'

I found out about the meeting here:

http://efoodalert.blogspot.com/2008/11/demystifying-melamine-muddle.html

Looks like a good blog to watch.

Oh, dear.  There does seem to be a disconnect but on top of that, I don't like anything I'm reading there as far as anything even approaching science being applied to the irradiation of pet foods.

And does anyone know if the Orijen pet food bags in the AU were labeled as 'irradiated?'  It seems that labeling irradiated food is the law in the AU - looked like their laws were even stricter than here.

But once again, is pet food exempt?

http://www.who.int/foodsafety/fs_management/melamine_expertcall.pdf

---

http://www.irradiation.info/documents/PC%20documents/badtaste.pdf
"THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION is the most
important and influential agency of its kind on the planet. Created in
1948 by the United Nations, the WHO pursues a mission nothing
short of preserving the health of the Earth’s population – “a state of
complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the
absence of disease or infirmity.”1
Headquartered in Geneva, the WHO has grown from 61 member
nations at its founding to 193 today, from Algeria to Zimbabwe. Its
more than 100 initiatives encompass virtually every health problem
imaginable, from anthrax and adolescent reproductive health, to
vitamin A deficiency and violence against women.2
When the WHO speaks, the world listens.
In 1999, the WHO announced that any food could be “treated”
with ionizing radiation and still be safe for human consumption. Even
though this radiation – in the form of gamma rays emanating from
radioactive cobalt-60 or cesium-137, or near-speed-of-light electrons
fired by linear accelerators – could be as high as the equivalent of
several billion chest x-rays, a WHO report proclaimed that irradiating
food “does not result in any toxicological hazard.”3"

---

Who is now chairperson of WHO?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Chan
"After the first victim of the H5N1, Chan first tried to reassure Hongkongers with her infamous statements like, "I ate chicken last night" [5] or "I eat chicken every day, don't panic, everyone".[6][7][8]"

Her performance during the SARS outbreak, which ultimately led to 299 deaths, attracted harsh criticism from the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and many SARS victims and their relatives.[8] She was criticised by the Legislative Council for her passiveness,[11] for believing in misleading information shared by the mainland authority, and did not act swiftly.

Looks like there is a lot of pressure on pet food companies to irradiate.  This is written by someone in the irradiation business.  (So they make money 'protecting pet owners.')

Note that the AU starts its minimum where the US places its maximum value.

Protecting Pet Owners
"After the 1999 Canadian outbreak, Health Canada and the US Foodand Drug Administration (FDA) encouraged manufacturers to take voluntary action and use treatments such as heat or irradiation tokill bacteria on these products. Some companies did so recognizingthe importance of producing safe, uncontaminated pet treat products.  In 2004 the FDA began regularly testing pet treats for Salmonella. Because testing indicates that contamination levels have not decreased, the FDA plans to step up its enforcement activities according to this CDC article.Typical doses range from 5 to 30 kGy depending on the product and level of contamination. Unfortunately regulations vary from country to country. For example: In Canada pet treats are not regulated per se, but recalls are performed through the Animal Health Act. The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS)require a minimum 50 kGy. In the United States the Irradiation of Animal Feeds is regulated under FDA 21 CFR 579.22 that allows up to a maximum of 50 kGy. While many pet food companies are aware of the hazard of harmfulbacteria on their products some companies, especially smaller ones
are reluctant to use irradiation because of the impact on their profit margins. A shame since irradiation can be a cost- effective solution when applied at the appropriate dose level. Protecting pet owners from the risk of developing this diarrheal illness is easy with labelled irradiated pet treats. In the picture are irradiated pig ears purchased locally in Ottawa, which come from Canada, Denmark, France and the United States. Coal likes them all.

Remember the irradiated rawhide chew products from China Catbird mentioned that made pets ill but no standard tests could explain it?  Wonder what their standards are there.


Or maybe their customers prefer non-irradiated food?

Great article, Trudy!

The new photos made me so hungry I had to quickly eat some applesauce!  A poor substitute, though.  Normally I just enjoy looking, but when you mention the bf getting to eat one of these exquisite creations each week....I better not let DH see this! 

They are all gorgeous, but being an old hippie the mushroom cake caught my eye.  I have one close to it.  (Already a bite missing.)



The florals and colorful cakes are really nice to look at this time of year.  The little cake inside the lattice work is really intriguing, like a hidden treasure!

Thanks for sharing!!!

I was wondering if maybe contacting research nephrologists for referrals might be a way to find a good lab.  Sometimes research papers have their emails.

I contacted the National Kidney Foundation awhile ago about the melamine being in the Chinese baby formula but did not get a response back.

Such a cutie!  I'm glad she is feeling better.  I know how hard it is to figure out what is going on with seniors and meds.   

Ned, are the new pills exactly the same size as the old and have the same code imprinted, (if any)?  I think they try to make the dosages look different, but I wonder why she would have that side effect with the new pills?

Wonderful photos!  So you are officially catmom6, then?  You could actually change your display name in your profile if you wanted.  Then no more 5catmom/catmom5 confusion. 

(But I think I need the mental challenge of keeping you two straight.  )

He is off all meds now, even the ulcer meds and his stool looked normal, he is eating and digesting well and his personality is returning, thank God.  We are feeding as bland as possible home-cooked food.

The neurological symptoms were terrifying.  They were worst at night and in the morning, so we suspect the Orbax we were giving in the evening.  There was extreme lethargy and depression.  He would be disoriented and not recognize me, was scared and confused.  One morning his hind legs buckled and he fell down.  He urinated in bed.  (The bloody vomit episode was earlier when on Metacam and Clavamox, so not related to this one.)

He defecated next to his little bed in the office once and tried to eat his stool.  He was totally out of it mentally.  We finally had him sleeping in a kennel next to the bed, elevated so he was as close as possible, but he was so sad.  Last night he was feeling well enough to quietly cry there to himself, so we put him back in the bed and he was so grateful.  He was clinging to DH since he was the hero and took him out of the kennel.

No more accident since getting off the Orbax, though I am taking him out very late night or early am to be cautious.  It is just amazing to see his mind come back from this!

Thanks for sharing these photos.  They are all works of art and each so unique.  I love seeing creative work!

I have a lot of respect for Chinese medicine and have benefited from it myself and so has Poco.  It predates all our modern day troubles.  I notice that your remedy has frankincense in it and I remembered that I made my own Boswellia cream, (a frankincense component), to treat some strange and worrisome inflammation of my smallpox vaccine scar.  (Read about similar symptoms progressing to cancer at smallpox vac sites.)

It cleared it right up - truly like a miracle after many weeks of watching it progress.

Sophers looks as pretty and healthy as can be!  That jeans bed, (no - it does not look big), is hilarious!  I like the scale touch there.  I think she was trying to psych you out. 

Hey, you might have a business idea there - the recycled jeans igloo bed.

Petslave, a lot of supplement and natural food companies stopped using USPS for mailing because of the radiation treatments.  Fortunately not all post offices do that.  Isn't it something to think that someone that worked for the government's defense department apparently caused all that?

The cargo scanning that involves ionizing radiation is worrisome.  Even this conservative think tank is concerned, though their interest is not food safety.

http://www.heritage.org/Research/HomelandSecurity/wm2047.cfm
September 4, 2008
100 Percent Cargo Container Scanning: A Global Disaster

What worries me is this technology being in the hands of people that do not respect Americans and think like this:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/387945_pot15.html?source=mypi
"'Do you have more authority than God?' His answer was, 'Here on Earth we do.' "


http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/areyoulivinginaconstitutionfreezone.html

http://www.aclu.org/privacy/37294res20081022.html

If they do that to disabled veterans, social workers with roots in this country that go back to 1710, and get so vindictive towards a peace-loving music professor, how can we trust them with that technology?

All the same agency we are entrusing our health to.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Customs_and_Border_Protection